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Wacom Tablet - Bundled Software Question

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J-Mac:
A short while back there was a thread discussing Tablets for Windows PCs, including Wacom and a few others.  Well I did end up with a nice little Wacom Bamboo Fun tablet for Christmas - and I do love it! A little tough to get used to the scaling, as I remember some members here mentioned in the other thread.  But I'm getting there.  Actually it is nice and easy to use with Art Rage and a few other apps.  Paint Shop Pro X is fun - I use it for when I am altering the background of an image, and the like.

But my question for now is about the software that comes bundled with the Bamboo Fun tablet.  As I have for years, I completely ignored the software setups that came on the CD with the tablet driver, since everything I can ever remember installing from a software bundle included with a PC peripheral has always been either plain old junk, or a crippled, severely limited trial or mini-version.  I took a look at the CD label for the tablet driver and automatically figured it was more of the same.

However when cataloging the CD in a new CD case, along with about a million other old software and hardware CDs and DVDs, I was reading labels carefully to ensure I cataloged everything correctly and removing all the CD sleeves that CDs were in and checking to make sure I captured any registration or serial codes.  I suddenly noticed that saw that the codes on the Wacom CD appeared to be full version codes!  Could it be?

Before I install these and then turn right around and uninstall them, has anyone else installed these programs?  Are they truly full versions?  The titles included are:
[*] Adobe Photoshop Elements 4 and 5

[*] Corel Painter Essentials 3

[*] Nik Color Efex Pro 2[/list]
I'm really interested in using Photoshop Elements 5, and I'd like to give Corel Painter a try also.  But neither if they are only limited trialware.

Thanks!

Jim

BigJim:
I've been using a Wacom Tablet for over a year and, although I haven't used Photoshop Elements (ver 3) very much, it and the others do indeed seem to be the real McCoy. I just flashed up Elements which has been installed since I got the tablet and it's ready to rock 'n roll. Registration info displayed properly and no sign of a "nag screen". GOFORIT!!  :Thmbsup:

Caveat: Not that I would malign Photoshop Elements as "bloatware" it did install some Adobe cataloging utility that wanted to process all of my photos whenever I connected a camera or memory card to the computer. Quite annoying since I use another application for that. So, if there's a custom install option (I don't remember) I'd use it and bypass that 'feature'.

J-Mac:
Thanks BigJim!

Good to hear that it looks like the full version.  I was going to buy Elements 5 last year but was "waiting for the big sale", which never came.  Believe me, I have a lot of digital image apps on my box - too many, even though I've removed several.  One of my addictions!  I once had Photoshop Home Deluxe - or something like that - which came with an HP scanner a number of years ago.  Nice at the time, but missing a lot of features. Yet when I downloaded a trial version of the full Photoshop I was completely flabbergasted.  Way more complicated than it needed to be for the non-professional photographer, IMO. And the price was extremely high.  It seemed like they had invented a language designed to make non-pro's go cross-eyed!  I never did l purchase the expended version of Photoshop.

Now years later, Photoshop is still somewhat of an "elitist" application, or suite of applications.  I don't mean that in a bad way, but in that it is voluminous and still more expensive than the average non-pro can afford, including me, and seemingly aimed at photogs who are much more serious about it than I.  I have the knowledge to use a lot more of it now than then, but I would never pay the kind of price they ask.  (At this point I would give up my first born, but no one would take him!!). I mostly use Paint Shop Pro X for photo editing and effects, and ACDSee Pro for photo organization.  ACDSee is sweet but the company is pretty bad IMO. I won't go into that except to say that none of their subsequent versions added enough to be worth me purchasing, and any problems I have had with my current version must be accepted because their support model is really bad. At least IMO.

So I have wanted to try Elements to see how it handles photo organization. I have read about features that sound super, and some that don't sound near as good as ACDSee's.  Version 5.0 is the one that most reviews seemed to label as being awesome and worthy of upgrades.  Guess I'll get to find out firsthand now.

Thanks again!

Jim

Darwin:
Just came across this thread - Jim, how'd you make out? I, too, recently purchased a Wacom Bamboo Fun Tablet and can confirm that the registration codes give you the full versions of the software listed on the sleeve.

Have fun!

J-Mac:
Excellent!  I'm really surprised that they are full versions.  Actually that is a lot of software - the cost of having purchased each separately is pretty surprising.  Makes the Bamboo Fun that much better of a deal, doesn't it?

Jim

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